Sunday, 26 August 2012

First up, a reminder that
our next is event is our first Open Mic Nighton Wednesday 12th
September, 7.30pm at The Victoria. with 6 speakers (well, 5 speakers
and a singer) encompassing mystery, conspiracy, cancer quackery,
music and more. You can even tell us you're coming on our Facebook Page.Few
people will have missed the sad news announced on Saturday that Neil
Armstrong, the first human being to set foot on the moon, had died
aged 82. Rather than point to a broadsheet obituary here's Peter
Harrison on the man rather than the hero.

Finally in our little space round-up I hope you have seen
very few of the pictures like the one that heads this Round-Up. There
are two reasons: firstly it's not Armstrong (as he had the camera
most of the time) and secondly it's doctored. Charles Apple at the
American Copy Editors Society tells us why there areno usable photos of Armstrong while he was on the moon's surface.In
religion news Todd Bentley, the supposed healer, who assaults people
in the name of the lord has been refused entry to the UK. That must be a kick in the teeth.

The problems facing homeopathy in India rumble on as
privately run homeopathic colleges are almost empty leading some to
accuse proponents of the recent idea to allow alt-med practitioners
to do a one year course to qualify to prescribe real medicine as an
economic move. It is not explained why alt-med practitioners would
need to prescribe real medicine though after all, it all works doesn't
it? Unfortunately this fracas doesn't stop them from attempting to
treat malnourishment with their little sugar
pills.

Worrying news closer to home as Jennifer Keane reportsthat
the Irish Times felt the need to tell it's readers the “Truth”
about
avoiding cancer and Keir Liddle reports at the 21st Floor on a Guardian article on unproven cancer trials that led to
almost universal howls of derision on
publication.

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Welcome one and all to the Birmingham Skeptics round-up. Did you know that our next event is the open mic night? You did, did you? I bet you don't know who's going to be speaking there then. We have an author and a singer amongst others, you can find out even more by clicking here. Wednesday 12th September, 7.30pm at The Victoria. Make sure you're there. Anyway, on with the round-upMassimo Pigliucci believe there's quite a bit of unreason within the community of reason. To stop this unreason in its tracks, he has some practical suggestions in 'The Community of Reason, a self-assessment and a manifesto'.'The fake butter used to flavour popcorn causes alzheimers!' screamed the press around the world. The New York Post offered this in-depth article on the subject. Unlike the world media, somebody actually took the time to read the study, you can read what they found here.As one batshit apocalyptic prediction fails to materialise, another emerges. This time the world is going to end at 11.11GMT 21/12/2012. So, should you be worried about the impending apocalypse? Matt Ridley says you shouldn't.An 11 year-old Pakistani girl could face the death penalty after being accused of Qua'ran burning. Burning a book = Wrong. Killing a child = Right.Nick Cohen's excellent article on an evil collusion between a tyrant and a man of God.Dr Peter Wothers reckons that chemistry is too often taken for granted or dismissed as 'evil chemicals'. He's going to show the naysayers 'what for' at Christmas as he'll be presenting the RI Christmas lectures as they focus on chemistry.Arrrrghhh! There's a Flying Spaghetti Monster in the Sky!American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide their congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington.Jen McCreight proposes a new wave of atheism, although Notung is sceptical.Birmingham Skeptics organiser Patrick was interviewed by Adrian Goldberg on BBC Radio WM, you can hear him talking about our 'sceptical meat and 2 veg' as the recording is here.Is it fair to circumcise new-born boys?I leave you with a video featuring those lovely people from the Church of Scientology. One of the stars of this video spoke to the hardcore rationalists at TruthJuice Birmingham this week, lucky them.

This week's round-up was put together by Birmingham Skeptics co-organiser Paul Bryant.

Don’t forget that we have our social coming up next week and that the sitp this
month is our first ever open mic night featuring some of you lot that
sit in our audience and a couple of guests. Put them in your diary now! And on
that note we’ll leave you till next week!

Keeping with the space theme we’d like to pay our respects to physicist and
astronomical pioneer Sir Bernard Lovell who died today aged 98. Founder and
first director of the iconic Jodrell Bank which houses the telescope that bears
his name amongst many other achievements

Another physicist honoured this week is good old Brian Cox who received his
award from University Campus Oldham via the actor and sci- fi icon Patrick
Stewart who made it so.

You wouldn’t think that water could be controversial, but then it depends on
what you do or don’t put into it I suppose. Flouride is a good example, most
people agree it strengthens the teeth, but does it lower your intelligence?
Some think it does and some not.

Don’t know about you but I’ve been having a great time watching the Olympics.
Wired have been doing an excellent series on the science behind different
events including pole vault, shot putt, and many others.

I remember proudly showing those Rorschach type images of the ultrasound scans
of my children. “Is that an arm, is that a leg, where’s its head?” More
accurate but also more disturbing is this alternative.

Somebody has gone and built a to-scale Noah’s Ark. There is a bit of me that thinks
this is very sad and another that it is very cool. You can make your own minds
up. I’m not sure how they are going to get it moving but if they can fit the
requisite number of species aboard then they are just as likely to be able to
use this remarkable means of power.

The 8th of August is the wonderful Rebecca Stott author of Darwin’s Ghosts and other books. This is a skeptics in the pub premiere with a truly
fascinating topic. On top of that this month we have the return of our social,
an informal gathering to chat and socialise. This has proven popular for people
that find the talk nights too busy to meet people properly.

Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub meet on the second Wednesday of the month for a speaker. We will often meet at other times too for extra talks, socials and events. Follow our social media or go to our .org site to make sure you know what's happening.